In the Philippines, the stature of your defense counsel can mean the difference between your liberty and incarceration. This weakness seems to be a worldwide phenomenon.
"x x x.
A new working paper from the Rand Corporation, "How Much Difference Does the Lawyer Make? The Effect of Defense Counsel on Murder Case Outcomes," starts by stating the obvious:
Under nearly every normative theory of punishment or criminal responsibility, the characteristics of the offender’s defense counsel should make no difference in the outcome of the process. Whether or not a defendant is found guilty and the extent to which the offender is sentenced to be punished should only depend upon facts about the offender and perhaps the possibility and need of deterring a particular crime.4 The effect of the individual lawyer (and the system for providing that lawyer) is pure “noise.”
x x x."
